The Boy With A Thousand Faces
by Drow79
Summary: A wise man once said that, 'It is the nature Aura to return the body to a state it finds natural.' Unfortunately, he was right. And let me tell you...it's a painful process. I shouldn't even be here, I'm a civilian not a Hunter. So how did I get forced into this? Coverart by dishwasher1910.
1. The Opening Act

**So this came from my brain being focused on RWBY thanks to the new season. It's actually hard to write for any other fandom now because of that. Hope you guys enjoy it.**

* * *

"This is why I quit Signal! I'm an actor not a damned hunter!" yelled a male voice as he heard the sounds of grunting and snarling from the Grimm behind him getting louder.

The black haired boy briefly pondered on how this situation had come about and what he had done to deserve this kind of treatment. He had just been walking towards the theater dressed in his usual jeans and black hoodie, ready to start his first show of the day, when suddenly the emergency breach alarm had sounded. Next thing he and anyone else knew was a massive train crashing through the city wall before a horde of Grimm spilled into the city.

It was pandemonium…

People rushed in every direction, desperate to escape, their fear attracting even more Grimm as the local authorities struggled to contain the damage. Even the nearby Huntsman Academy, Beacon, was sending out their students to help combat the threat. However, it seemed that even with the addition of Huntsman forces, the breach wouldn't be contained any time soon as more and more Grimm spewed into the city.

Thankfully, Atlas had seemed to realize this as well as they deployed their robot armies to support the Huntsmans, finally pushing the Grimm back into the tunnels and leaving only small pockets of Grimm activity remaining.

Of which he had the dubious honor of being stuck in…

'Still,' thought the boy in pain as a Beowolf raked his back with its claws, thankfully not breaking through his Aura. 'At least I'm better off than those poor bastards without any Aura; I guess my year at Signal was good for something at least.'

Suddenly he felt something crash into him and knock the boy into the wall, causing him to groan as he looked up to see an Ursa staring down at him. 'I'm going to die,' he realized, watching as the Ursa raised its clawed paw to crush him. Instantly desperation filled his mind as he brought his hand up to try hold the Grimm's paw up, closing his eyes as he realized the futility in the attempt.

"I don't want to die!" he shouted, feeling his hand closing around something that definitely was not an Ursa's paw.

 _AURA ANALYSED. BEGINNING CONVERSION_.

'What was that? Wait why am I still alive?' thought the boy, opening his eyes to see the Ursa dissolving into nothing as a red cloaked girl stood between them.

The girl's body just glowed with a red Aura and both of them frowned as they saw a portion of the red smoky light flow from the girl's body and into his own. The boy groaned as an unnatural feeling of something foreign invading his body spread, causing a slight tingling sensation to spread from his head to his toes.

"Hey, are you alright?" asked the girl, a concerned expression growing on her face as he put his hand off her shoulder and started gripping his head.

"Yeah I'm fine. Thanks for the save," he replied with a grateful smile.

The girl smiled at him, "that's okay but you should be careful. Those without Aura shouldn't be fighting Grimm."

"Oh no, I have my Aura unlocked. It's just colourless, and before you ask…no I don't know why," he informed the reaper, only now noticing her massive scythe.

"Oh that's cool, you should still be careful though. I'm Ruby," she introduced, holding out a hand as the last of the Grimm in the area were eliminated.

"Umbra, cool weapon by the way. Reminds me of one of my teachers from my old school before I quit," smiled Umbra.

However, their cheerful introduction was cut short as the unnatural feeling in Umbra's body intensified and he screamed out as horrific pain erupted around his body. Ruby rushed over to him as Umbra collapsed to the ground, eyes widening in horror as the sickening sounds of bones breaking and reshaping echoed around the area.

It was then Ruby noticed the boy was getting shorter, in fact, he was turning to her height, his hair and eyes were changing colour…to the exact same as her own. The reaper took a step back as she saw a _very_ familiar red cloak and weapon materialize from nothing, and was silent as she saw an exact copy of herself lying on the ground before her.

"Ow…that hurt like a bitch," growled out her clone with her own voice before pausing as if in shock and clutching her throat. "Testing testing…1 2 3…why do I sound like a girl?"

In response, Ruby just silently handed her doppelganger a piece of metal, causing her copy to frown as she examined her reflection before dropping the metal in shock. "Well I guess we found your Semblance right Umbra?" joked the reaper, trying to hide her discomfort at the situation, feeling her _own_ Aura nearby but not under her control.

"Ruby! There you are!" shouted a female voice, causing them both to turn and see three other girls walking over to the, only to freeze as they saw the second Ruby.

"Hey Yang, meet Umbra," greeted Ruby, pointing to her copy.

"Ruby you never told us you had a twin," questioned the white one.

"He's not my twin Weiss, it's his Semblance. It lets him turn into a copy of people…I think," muttered the reaper.

"You think?" frowned the black one.

"He?" commented Yang, shooting Umbra a confused look.

"Ruby…he doesn't just look like you…his Aura is exactly the same as your's," argued Weiss, walking up to Umbra whom backed away.

"Like what you see Snow Angel," smirked Umbra, momentarily forgetting whom he looked like and causing an embarrassed flush to appear on Ruby's face while Weiss gained a rage-filled expression.

"Haha, that's priceless! Seeing my little sister hitting on our little Ice Queen, I guess that's why you two love Ice Flower so much," laughed Yang, getting an angered glare for both Ruby and Weiss.

"Yang this is not normal. A person's Aura cannot change regardless of the Semblance of the user. Nor is it normal for an ordinary civilian to have both their Aura and Semblance unlocked. We should take him to Ozpin, just in case," lectured the black haired one.

"Woah, no way am I going anywhere with you. I have a job I need to get back to," replied Umbra, struggling to get used to the female voice he now had.

"And what job is that? Stealing? Mercenary work? Bouncer?" questioned the black haired girl again with a suspicious expression on her face.

"I'm an actor at the local theatre," growled out Umbra, causing everyone to blink in surprise.

"Blake that wasn't very nice," frowned Ruby, before the reaper turned back to Umbra with an apologetic expression on her face. "But she's right; we'll need to take you to see our Headmaster."

"And I said I don't have time for this! If I don't make it to work on time again the boss will have my head!" shouted the 'boy' as he began walking away from the team, only to have a wall of ice appear in front of him.

"You're not going anywhere, besides do you think your boss will allow you to work looking like that?" questioned Weiss, pulling out her rapier from where she had stabbed it into the ground.

"I'm sure it will wear off by the time I get there, so good bye," replied Umbra before breaking into a sprint down the nearest street.

Unfortunately, he was not prepared for everything to blur around him as he disappeared into red rose petals, not used to the sudden increase in speed he wasn't able to control himself and watched as a light post rushed up to meet him before immense pain erupted in his head and he blacked out.

* * *

Umbra groaned as he woke up and looked down at himself, breathing a sigh of relief as he saw his normal _male_ body. "That was the weirdest dream I've ever had," he muttered, before getting up and seeing the four girls staring down at him.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty," laughed Yang, even as Umbra sighed and saw that he seemed to be in some sort of dorm room.

'Those have to be the unsafest bunk beds in the world, how are they not dead yet?' thought the boy as he stared at the dangerous looking beds. Eventually getting up from the ground, he noticed that his hands hand been tied with rope and glared at them.

"Bondage isn't my thing, gotta be honest," he frowned, holding up his hands and getting an eye roll from Blake whom looked to Ruby for permission.

The reaper nodded and Blake swiftly cut the ropes binding him, being careful not to let him touch her, causing the boy to flinch as blood rushed back into his hands. "So where am I and how long was I out?" he asked, rubbing his wrists.

"You're at Beacon; we wanted to wait until you woke up before taking you to the Headmaster. As for how long you have been out…well about two hours. You turned back to normal about an hour ago, it wasn't pleasant to watch," answered Weiss.

"Gee, thanks for that," muttered Umbra, before reaching his hand out to shake their hands, only to see none of the girls step forward. "Well what a nice reception."

"Until we know how your Semblance works, none of us want to touch you. We don't want you be able to turn into us like you did to Ruby," pointed out Blake, getting a blink from Umbra whom then nodded his head in agreement.

"Ok so now what?" asked the boy.

"You're going to stay here under watch until we can talk to Ozpin about you. Better make yourself comfortable, it might be awhile," replied Yang, making Umbra sigh before heading over to the top bunk suspended by ropes.

"Mind if I rest then? I'm still feeling a bit tired," yawned the boy as he climbed onto the bed, only to feel something hard sticking up underneath the pillow, and lifting it up he saw a chest hidden there.

"What's this?" muttered Umbra as he reached out to open a small chest hidden under Ruby's pillow but was promptly hurled against the wall by the reaper.

"Don't touch that! Don't ever touch that!" snarled Ruby, surprising him as she used her incredible strength to rip it out of his hand, actually breaking a few of his fingers in her rage.

Umbra hissed in pain as Ruby then threw him off her bed and sent him tumbling to the ground with a loud thud. Weiss and Blake just looked at their team leader in surprise at her uncharacteristic reaction while Yang's now red eyes stayed focused entirely on him. The brawler's hair softly glowing with a fiery light as she glared at him, her gauntlets already deployed over her arms.

Instantly Umbra swallowed as he held his hands up protectively to cover his face, "Oum CHILL! Look whatever I did, I am sorry! So let's just calm down okay?"

"Yang, Ruby, you two need to calm down. He didn't even know what he was doing, and he clearly didn't know just how important that box was to you," reasoned Blake, getting a nod of support from Weiss as the heiress gave the box a curious look.

"What's in it anyway?" asked the white haired girl, causing the siblings to exchange a glance before Ruby nodded to Yang.

"It was something of our mother's; she used to carry it everywhere…until the day she went missing. Ruby asked if she could have it for the day…it hasn't been opened since…" explained Yang.

Umbra just flinched as he got glares from the other two members of team RWBY, "hey I said I was sorry!"

Ruby seemed to return to her cheerful self as the box was placed back under her pillow and turned to face him; however before she could even say anything, her scroll started buzzing. The team leader's eyes widened as she answered the scroll before answering whoever was on the other end with a respectful tone.

Eventually the reaper hung up and spun to face her team, "that was Doctor Oobleck…apparently the Headmaster wants to debrief us on the mission in Mount Glen leading up to the Breach."

"Mount Glen? Why the hell were you there of all places?" asked Umbra, only to be ignored by the four huntresses.

"What about him?" asked Yang, pointing at Umbra.

"He could be let go… _he_ does have a home and job he has to get back to," commented the black haired boy in a dry tone.

"He should stay here, with a Semblance as unique as that, Headmaster Ozpin will definitely want to see him. Plus we still don't know if he really is a civilian or not," replied Weiss, getting a shocked expression from Umbra.

The boy then stood up from the ground as he rounded on the heiress, "hold on you can't just keep me here locked up like some kind of prisoner!"

"What was that?" threatened Yang as she started cracking her knuckles with an eager expression on her face.

Not wanting to get even more on the brawler's bad side than he already had Umbra tried a new tactic, "why would your Headmaster even want to talk to me? I am not a Hunter, hell; I am not even a cop. I'm just a civilian who was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"A civilian with their Aura and Semblance unlocked?" scoffed Blake, getting a sigh from the boy.

"That was the first time my Semblance ever activated, and I used to go to Signal before quitting, they unlocked my Aura," he explained with a tired expression.

"That's right I remember you! The boy with the colourless Aura, you were one of the best in my year before simply quitting without warning after two years of study," exclaimed Yang, as she punched her fist into her open palm.

"You went to Signal? Our father teaches there!" exclaimed Ruby in an excited tone before a frown crossed her face. "Why did you quit? Signal is an awesome school!"

Umbra just looked away from the reaper as he stared out at the sky through the window and a pained expression grew on his face, "Let's just say I had an unwanted and painful wakeup call. Then I grew a brain. Why should I risk my life for people who would not do the same for me? Did you know that a Hunter's average life expectancy is around 25? Becoming a Huntsman is a death sentence. And so I left."

"So you're a coward," growled Yang, causing a flash of anger to appear in the Umbra's eyes that went unnoticed by team RWBY as they got a shrug from the boy in question.

"Maybe…but this coward will outlive all of you. So call me names if you want but in the end when you are all dying in a ditch somewhere in the wilds…I'll be living my life safely in Vale. I'll take the civilian's life over a hero's death any day," he concluded softly, the only one hearing this mumble was Blake as the rest of team RWBY glanced at him with varying states of disgust or pity as they headed towards the door.

"We're going to see the Headmaster; I'm locking the door behind us so you can't leave. If he doesn't want to talk to you then we'll let you go, no funny business while we're gone," growled Weiss.

"Whatever you say Ice Queen," growled out Umbra, flinching slightly as he heard the sound of the door slamming shut.

* * *

Team RWBY as silent as they stared at Ozpin's office, watching with an intrigued expression on their faces as they saw his window slowly become transparent, revealing the city beneath them. Eventually they were snapped out of their trace as Ruby was questioned on the events leading up to the Breach and Mountain Glen.

"I see, thank you for your cooperation Miss Rose, with your help we now have a better idea on the events leading up to the Breach and how to prevent a similar incident," dismissed the Headmaster, upon hearing team RWBY finish their debriefing.

"Actually, sir…there is one more thing we wanted to talk to you about," replied Ruby, getting raised eyebrows from Oobleck, Glynda and Ozpin.

"And what is that Miss Rose?" asked the Headmaster.

"During the cleanup operation in Vale, we encountered a unique individual that raised our suspicions, he was supposedly a civilian but had an Aura unlocked. And he was spotted near where Torchwick was captured," informed Blake, taking charge of the questions.

"And you believe he had something to do with the Breach incident?" questioned the Headmaster with a frown.

The disguised Faunus frowned before shaking her head, "I did at first…but now I don't think so. Still we decided to air on the side of caution and detain him in our dorm."

The teachers just shook their head as Ozpin spoke up, "can you describe him? Was there anything that stood out about him?"

"Well he said his name was Umbra and that he was a dropout from Signal...oh and he had a colourless aura, does that work?" questioned Ruby, causing all three teachers to blink in surprise.

"A colourless Aura? That is…most unusual," frowned Ozpin, getting a nod of agreement from all the teachers present. "Glynda, could you please bring up Signal school records for anyone with the name Umbra?"

"Of course Headmaster, I shall send them to your scroll immediately," replied the combat instructor as she took out her scroll and began access the school records.

"Umm…Headmaster, I know this might sound odd…but why is a colourless Aura so unusual? I mean we all start off with a colourless one when we are young," asked Ruby, causing the Headmaster to look down at the cup in his hand and sigh.

"Miss Rose, a person's Aura reflects who they are; even the colour of the Aura itself is no exception. Every colour has a certain meaning to it, for example, an Aura with a majority red colour indicates a passionate personality, which can be seen by your devotion to your friends, while white, indicates a disciplined one. This is why they are colourless when we are younger, our Aura hasn't fully matured with our personality," explained the Headmaster, causing Weiss and Ruby to shift slightly as he turned to face them.

"That is why an individual with a colourless Aura is so unusual, either he has a unique personality or his Aura never fully matured with him. Which should be impossible if he spent time at Signal academy," replied Ozpin.

"Maybe his Semblance has something to do with it?" questioned Weiss, drawing the attention of all the teachers as they turned to stare at her.

"He has unlocked his Semblance? A Signal dropout?" frowned Goodwitch, getting a nod from team RWBY as Weiss continued.

"Yes ma'am, we've never even heard of one like it before. In fact, it was the reason we brought him back, we thought you'd want to see him," answered the heiress with an equally confused frown on her face.

"And what is his Semblance, Miss Schnee?" questioned Oobleck with a curious expression on his face.

Team RWBY all exchanged glances with each other as they silently decided who should go first before three of them all turned to Ruby, whom sighed as she stepped forward. "He turned into me," she informed them.

"Odd but not that uncommon, there have been individuals that have had the Doppelgänger Semblance before," commented Oobleck, causing all of team RWBY to shake their heads."

"No you don't understand, he didn't become a copy of me…he became _me_. He even gained my Semblance!" replied Ruby in a confused tone, causing all the teachers to freeze.

"That's not possible…a Semblance is completely unique to that individual, it cannot be replaced as one might replace their clothes," lectured Glynda, her frown deepening as she stared at the students.

"With all due respect professor…I _felt it_. It was like there were two of me at once!" shouted Ruby, surprising everyone as she gripped the edges of her cloak in discomfort.

"Glynda, perhaps we should hear her out before passing judgement," stated Ozpin, getting a nod the other two teachers in the room as they recovered from Ruby's outburst.

Clearly, something about the experience was bothering the girl, as this was definitely not Ruby's usual behaviour. This realization silenced any argument that the combat instructor had planned as she stared at the uncomfortable expression on the reaper's face.

"Please Miss Rose, tell us what happened," encouraged the Headmaster in a soft voice.

"I had just saved him from some Grimm when it started…he grabbed me by my shoulder before falling to the ground and screaming in pain," began the team leader with a flinch, remembering the painful sound of the boy's scream.

Seeing everyone silently watching her the reaper continued, "That's when I noticed some of my red Aura flow into him and then his body started changing. He turned into an exact copy of me, complete with clothes and Crescent Rose strapped onto his back."

Ruby grew silent from the memory as Weiss took over, "that's when we showed up, only to see two Rubys staring at each other in shock. Once we worked out what was going on we tried to detain him, only for him to use Ruby's Semblance to try and escape."

Suddenly Yang burst into laughter, drawing everyone's attention, "yeah thankfully he clearly wasn't ready for that kind of speed. The idiot hit a light post and knocked himself out."

"Once he was unconscious he turned back to his normal form and we tied him up and took him back to Beacon," concluded Blake.

As the story finished Ozpin sighed, "While I appreciate your diligence with safeguarding Vale…I must remind you that all four of you just wrongfully threatened, attacked and detained a civilian. Something that he could easily sue you for if he wanted to."

"But sir, at the time we didn't know he was a civilian. He had both his Aura and Semblance unlocked," argued Blake, getting a nod from all the teachers present.

"I am aware Miss Belladonna, which is why I'm going with you to meet him; hopefully I can convince him to stop any lawsuits he has planned as well as examine his Aura. You haven't antagonized or harmed him during his stay here have you?" asked the Headmaster.

The four girls just glanced at each other before Yang and Ruby started whistling innocently, causing a frown to grow on the headmaster's face. "I see…I have a feeling this is going to be a tough challenge," sighed Ozpin as he got up from the chair and turned to his fellow teachers.

"I will be back shortly with the boy, have the equipment ready in the training room," he ordered, getting nods from Glynda and Oobleck.

Together with team RWBY, they made their way towards the dorms, only to hear a loud crash coming from their dorm room. "What was that?!" exclaimed Yang, only for Ruby's eyes to widen in recognition as she _felt_ something familiar and rushed to the door before unlocking it with her scroll.

Swinging the door open the reaper suddenly froze, her scroll dropping from numb hands as she stared at the sight that greeted her. The others quickly caught up to the stunned reaper before they turned to see what had shocked their teammate so much, only to hear a quiet gasp from Yang and Ozpin.

"Summer?" muttered the Headmaster in shock as the white cloaked woman turned to face them, blinking as she caught sight of them.

* * *

Umbra growled as he unsuccessfully tried to open the locked door before walking over to the window, planning to jump to his freedom, only to sigh as he saw the height of the drop. 'Okay, there's no way I'm surviving that jump, not with my low Aura reserves,' he thought with a sigh before walking over to the nearest bunk bed.

After a couple of minutes of boring silence, Umbra began pacing around the room like a caged cat when his gaze turned back to Ruby's bunk bed. 'I wonder what's in that box?' he pondered, and a cunning smirk appeared on his face.

"Payback's a bitch. Besides, it's not like they'll know I looked inside anyway," decided Umbra as his curiosity got the better of him and the boy reached for the box hidden under the pillow again.

Jumping down off the bed, Umbra approached the nearby desk, ignoring the corgi growling at him in the corner as he opened the box. Peering inside the boy pulled out a pure silver locket with a rose emblem engraved onto the back, opening the locket he saw a picture of a white cloaked woman and a blonde haired man holding onto younger versions of whom Umbra assumed to be Ruby and Yang.

Suddenly Umbra's eyes widened as the locket in his hand started glowing with a soft smoky white light that was slowly being absorbed into his body, the now familiar sensation of a foreign presence invading his body spreading throughout his mind.

 _AURA ANALYSED. BEGINNING CONVERSION._

'Wait, what?' thought Umbra before he screamed out in unimaginable pain as the sounds of bones shifting and breaking echoed throughout his body. Suddenly it was over and as he looked down at himself, he noticed the giant white cloak now clinging to his body…

Eyes widening as he remembered the picture from the locket he raced over to the nearest mirror and sure enough, there was the white clad woman from the photo looking back at him. 'She's a looker,' he thought as he stared at the mature and yet youthful face in the mirror, laughing as he pulled numerous faces in the mirror.

"Wait…didn't Ruby say this was her mother…her _dead_ mother…oh they are going to be so pissed if they catch me like this. Damn it how do I change back!" he growled out, trying to ignore both his new 'assets' and female voice as he tried to think up a plan.

He only knew one sure fire way he could change back but that required him to be unconscious…and who knew how long this would last otherwise. 'So my choice is either face Ruby and Yang's wrath for opening their box…and turning into their deceased mother or knocking myself out…easy choice,' he thought before gripping the twin chained scythes at his belt.

'This looks cool…and Oum damned deadly…this chick must have been badass,' he thought before picking up the weapons and examining them. 'Now how do I use these?'

Staring down at the chain connected to the scythes he grinned as a line from a game he used to play came to mind. Throwing the scythe forward he watched it sink into the wood of the bottom bunk bed before his grin grew even wider.

"Get over here!" he shouted in amusement, tugging on the chain.

Unfortunately, he failed to take into account just how strong the chick must have been as the minute he pulled on the chain, the scythe sent the bed flying towards him. Eyes widening in fear Umbra raised his hands protectively to cover his face, only to watch as the minute the bed touched his hand it dissolved into white rose petals.

Blinking he looked down at the petals now scattered across the room and shrugged, "well that could have gone worse."

As he said this there was a loud crash as the top bunk, that had be resting on the now disintegrated bottom bed, plummeted to the ground before all four legs broke and the bed snapped in half. Umbra just stared at the scene before and paled…if he wasn't already in deep shit before he was now.

However before he could get over his shock, and risk the window jump, Umbra heard the sound of a door opening and spun around to see team RWBY as well as a grey haired man standing in the doorway, Ruby and Yang's eyes the size of dinner plates.

"Well…shit," muttered Umbra in his new female voice.

* * *

 **Well there we go. For people who are wondering I didn't think up Summer's Semblance or weapons. Her Semblance came from Ruugi's The Games We Play and the weapons came from dishwasher's Deviantart account.**

 **I might continue this or I might not, it depends on my brain as well as the time I have available.**


	2. The Stage Is Set

**Well you guys wanted it. So I'll guess I'll continue this story. Hope you like the chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing it all belongs to Roosterteeth.**

* * *

"Now I know this looks bad, but believe me when I say it was an accident," swallowed Umbra, as he tried to blow his new hair away from his face.

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO OUR ROOM!" screeched Weiss, seeing rose petals scattered along the floor and one bed was broken in half while another was completely missing.

"Summer? Is that really you?" muttered Ozpin, drawing confused looks from Weiss and Blake while Ruby and Yang remained motionless in shock.

"Summer? Who the hell is that? And who are you?" frowned the woman as she began backing towards the window.

"Umbra is that you?" realized Blake, causing Ruby, Yang and Ozpin to snap out of their trances as the white cloak woman gave a thumbs up.

"Yeah it's m-" he began, only to be cut off as a yellow gauntlet slammed into his face, sending Umbra flying _through_ the dorm wall and into the next room, crashing into a surprised team JNPR.

"YOU BASTARD! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" screamed the brawler, her hair and eyes burning a fiery red as the heat in the room skyrocketed.

Umbra shook his head before leaping to the side as Yang came barreling through the hole in the wall, causing him to be incredibly grateful for this chick's incredible aura and physical prowess. Yang roared in rage as her punch passed through thin air as Umbra used his new body's incredibly reflexes to jump over the enraged brawler before rushing towards the window, attempting to open it and risk the jump. Ozpin's eyes became dinner plates as he saw the window dissolve into white rose petals as Umbra touched it, making the transformed boy blink in confusion as he stared at his own hands.

"Scatter," muttered the Headmaster in recognition, recognising the Semblance immediately as he stared at the white cloaked figure.

Umbra snapped out of his confused daze as his long dormant combat instincts screamed out a warning and he turned just in time to see a bed from JNPR's dorms come flying at his face. Realising that he didn't have time to dodge Umbra brought his hands up once again, praying that it worked like before. Sure enough the minute he touched the bed it dissolved into white rose petals, this time he noticed a slight drop of power as Aura flowed into his hands as the furniture disintegrated.

Yang didn't seem deterred by the failure of her latest assault as she fired her shotgun gauntlets at her target, only to see the glowing projectile impact Umbra's hand before it too turned into white petals and leaving Umbra unharmed. 'Okay, I think I've figured out the basics of her Semblance now. Anything I touch I can dissolve into rose petals. Useful, but I still don't know what limitations it has imposed on it. Either way, my escape route's open no point dealing with her,' thought Umbra as his now silver eyes narrowed on the rapidly approaching brawler before darting back to the now open window.

Not waiting for Yang to get another hit in Umbra leapt out of the window as he threw one of the chain scythes into the wall of the building before using the weapon and its long extension as a rope to swing away from the dorm room. Only to feel the weapon slip out from the wall as a loud sniper round slammed into the scythe, knocking it out from the force of the projectile. Umbra could do nothing as he began rushing towards the earth, in his tumble he managed to catch a glimpse of something red rush past him before a familiar red scythe just barely missed his neck.

Finally hitting the ground, Umbra felt his old Signal training kick back in as he landed with a roll before spinning to face his newest opponent and readied the twin chain scythes. The transformed boy swallowed as he saw Ruby staring at him with a disturbingly blank expression on her face before she pointed her scythe at him.

"How dare you," she muttered softly, silver eyes now a steely grey as they narrowed on his own.

"Ruby calm down and listen to me. It was an accident! I SWEAR!" shouted Umbra as he tried to reason with the reaper, only for them both to hear a loud crash as Yang slammed into the earth beside her sister.

"You mean it was an accident that you retrieved my box, opened it up, picked up our mother's locket and…and disgraced her memory like this!" stated the reaper, still with the cold tone devoid of emotion that made shivers run down his spine.

"Ruby, Yang! Stop, what are you doing!?" shouted Weiss from the dorm window as she and Blake prepared to intervene, only to stop as Ozpin blocked them off with an outstretched arm.

They both turned to the headmaster in shock and noticed he wasn't even looking at them, instead he was staring at Umbra with an evaluating expression. "Let them get it out of their system, right now they need it. I will step in before it gets too dangerous," he ordered them, getting confused looks from the two students as the three of them watched from the safety of the dorm window.

'He's beginning to understand the Semblance of Summer Rose, but that's only part of the reason she was so effective a Huntress. Let's see how well he adapts to a different body like this,' he decided, a frowning growing on his face as a thought passed through his head.

'If his Semblance copies the Aura and Semblance of others…how did he get a hold of Summer's?' realized the Headmaster as he headed down to the courtyard, clearly there was more to this boy's Semblance than he realized.

* * *

'Okay think Umbra, remember back to Signal, first evaluate the pros and cons of the situation. Pro; This chick, Summer, is far stronger and faster than Ruby and Yang, probably from the fact that she was a full Huntress while they are only Huntresses-in-training, so I have the advantage when it comes to pure stats,' planned the transformed boy as he quickly glanced down at the twin scythes in his hands.

Unfortunately, this tiny distraction was all the pair needed as Ruby used her Semblance to instantly appear in front of him before embedding the point of her scythe blade into the ground and using the momentum to swing around and slam Umbra in the head with a violent kick that sent him tumbling to the ground. Umbra then used his superior speed and strength to slam one of his chain scythes into Ruby, however the reaper just vanished into rose petals as she activated her Semblance and reappeared in a burst of speed beside her sister.

The brawler didn't even need a verbal signal from Ruby as she rushed towards the still recovering Umbra, not bothering to fire any rounds or hurl projectiles as she approached, knowing that most would be useless against Summer's Semblance. He just growled as he threw one of the scythes at the brawler, causing Yang to back off as the weapon impact sent her flying into the air from the force of the blow. Umbra just stared as Yang crashed back to the ground before pulling on the chain and returning it back to his hand. Silently awed and terrified at the strength this woman must have had as he watched Yang lying unmoving in the crater.

"Ruby, let's stop this. I don't want to hurt you like I just did you sister," begged Umbra as he tried to reason with the reaper, only to feel a wave of heat wave over him from the crater where Yang and landed.

Spinning around he saw the brawler glowing with a fiery light as flames danced along her body, lilac eyes now a blood red as she rose to her feet. Umbra backed up slightly as Yang slowly stood up and began walking towards him. Throwing his scythe at her again Umbra's eyes widened as Yang grabbed the scythe as it came towards her, her strength seemingly increased to incredible proportions as it completely halted the scythe's momentum.

'Con; I don't know my own strength. Plus, they both have much more experience than I do, they completed their Signal training after all…and got into Beacon. They already have adapted to me using Summer's Semblance, I should haven't have used it that obviously…Next, I still have no idea how to fight as Summer, hell, I've only got Signal level training…and even that is rusty,' sighed Umbra as he struggled to break the brawler's grip on one of his chain scythe.

'Alright, in order to win this, I need to figure out to fight like Summer, so let's recap what we know. She had very little aura protecting her, her body indicates that she focused on Speed and Strength rather the Endurance and Aura. She has twin chained scythes with extremely long chains to enable throwing, but no guns or firearms,' frowned Umbra as he and Yang were locked in a tug of war, each pulling on their ends of the chain scythe.

'How is she able to match Summer's strength? Is it her Semblance?' questioned Umbra, but before he could dwell on this thought any longer Ruby took advantage of his trapped state and fired a barrage of sniper rounds at him. Thankfully Summer's reflexes were fast enough that he managed to block this attack with his free hand as the barrage of projectiles scattered into white petals that fell all around his cloaked body.

'Alright, this isn't working. Since Summer's got a speed and strength focus let's try hit and run tactics,' decided Umbra as he silently gave thanks to the combat teacher at Signal for being so thorough in class. He might have been a drunk, but he was a damn good teacher when it came to combat class and tactics. A new plan in mind Umbra gave up on the tug of war as he instead rushed towards Yang, using the brawler's own strength against her as he let the chain drag him towards her.

Yang's red eyes widened slightly as he rapidly appeared in front of her and his free scythe slashed at the hand currently restraining his other scythe, freeing it as the blonde hissed in pain. However, before Umbra could even smirk in victory a familiar red scythe suddenly appeared around his neck.

Panicking Umbra placed his hand on the ground before activating Summer's Semblance as the pavement beneath the three fighters dissolved into rose petals, causing them all to fall into a massive crater of rose petals. Umbra, having expected this, was the first to recover as he leapt out of the white petals and tried to catch his breath from the near miss as he saw the white rose petals burst into flames and both Yang and Ruby climbed out.

'This isn't working they're too skilled, too experienced for me to beat them, even with Summer's body and Semblance!' he realized with a growl, only to have Ruby appear in front of him instantly with her scythe coming straight to her head. Caught off guard and not even having time to think Umbra felt his body move on its own as it instinctively used the chain connecting the scythes to his arms to stop Crescent Rose in its tracks.

Immediately after this the chains wrapped themselves around Crescent Rose and the scythe was ripped out from Ruby's grasp as Umbra pulled. All three fighters froze at this as silence echoed around the battlefield, broken only by the sound the red scythe hitting the ground. 'How did that happen?' thought the three of them as all of them realized that technique was well beyond what a Signal dropout could perform, hell, even most Beacon students would have needed to practice for days to perform it.

This lull didn't last long though as Yang rushed him, and with a combination of pure rage, adrenaline and her Semblance, proceeded to punch Umbra in the gut with the force of a runaway freight train. Everyone watched as the white aura protecting Umbra shattered, signaling that his Aura protection had completely depleted. Umbra just collapsed to the ground, wheezing in pain as the white aura surrounding his body began flowing back into his body.

"That's not good," muttered Umbra through gritted teeth as he stared up at the two Huntresses-in-training before him.

'This is what I get for pretending to be something I'm not I suppose; I could have avoided this fight entirely if I just played along. I'm an actor for Oum's sake how hard could it have been to pretend to be Summer...at least until I could escape,' he pondered, his eyes widening.

'Wait that's what I would have normally done, avoid the fight entirely! Why didn't I? Sure it would have caused Yang and Ruby some pain…but it's better than this at least!' realized Umbra as he coughed up a small amount of blood, the damage from Yang's last attack clearly more damaging than any of them expected.

Upon seeing the broken and beaten body of their mother lying on the ground beneath them, it seemed that the two Huntresses-in-training realized what they'd done as Umbra coughed up more blood. "Um…Umbra…are you okay? I…I didn't mean to…" started Yang, only to flinch as Umbra coughed out even more blood.

"Didn't mean to what YANG! Beat me to a bloody pulp! You and your sister are insane!" snapped Umbra, still with Summer's voice.

Ruby just blinked sadly, "sorry, we lost our temper. It's just…our mother's locket is precious to us. It was an accident."

"An accident? You mean like what happened with me and the damned locket!" he growled as the pain finally seemed to subside.

However, Umbra's rantings were cut off as a familiar incredible pain erupted around his body and he collapsed to the ground. All the observers, even Yang and Ruby, felt sick as they heard his screams as well as bones breaking and reshaping. He still deserved punishment for what he did…but even they would agree that this was too much, as they watched his body slowly return to his normal male form. Headmaster Ozpin watched with narrowed eyes as he saw the remaining white fragments of Aura get reabsorbed into Umbra's body as the boy fell into the bliss of unconsciousness.

"Go to your teammates, I believe they will need some consoling after this, I will let Glynda know that the dorms need fixing," ordered the Headmaster to Weiss and Blake whom nodded as they rushed over to Yang and Ruby.

The Headmaster then walked up to the unconscious body of Umbra before calling the medical staff at the infirmary, letting them know they were about to have a unique case. At least he would be able to run some tests on the boy's Aura as he was unconscious.

* * *

Umbra groaned as light began to flood into his closed eyes, causing the boy open his eyes and hiss as his eyes adjusted to the light level. Once his eyesight returned the boy blinked as he saw the grey haired man from early standing near his bed, apparently reading something on his scroll as two other adults were monitoring some sort of equipment that had been hooked up to him.

"I don't know Headmaster, the equipment says there are faint traces of both Miss Rose's and Summer's Aura within him. His Semblance could store it for later use but right now we still have no idea how it works," stated the blonde haired woman.

"Well why don't we ask him? He's awake," replied the green haired man in a rapid tone that Umbra struggled to follow along with.

Upon hearing this, all three adults turned to face him and Umbra flinched under the gaze of so the three Hunters. "Well Mr. Furvus. I suppose I should welcome you to my school. Unfortunate that it couldn't be under better circumstances," greeted the grey haired man as he put down his scroll.

"I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon. To my left is Professor Goodwitch, who teaches Dust and Combat Classes. To my right is Professor Oobleck, in charge of History Class," introduced Ozpin with a smile.

"Doctor," corrected Oobleck getting a small chuckle from the Headmaster.

"You need to do something about your students Headmaster, they're violent psychopaths," growled out the boy, getting a sigh from the Headmaster.

"I was hoping you could put all that behind us," he replied, getting nods from his two fellow teachers.

"I. WAS. CAPTURED. DETAINED. AND. BEATEN. And you want me to just sweep all that under the rug," hissed out the boy.

"They were only doing their job; you were a suspect in a possible terrorist attack. It is the same as if the police took you in for questioning," lied Ozpin, hoping to stop any lawsuit in its tracks, after all the Council were already looking for a reason to remove him from his post at Beacon.

"They beat me to a bloody pulp in a blood rage! In full view of the other students!" he snarled, causing a blank expression to grow on the Headmaster's face.

"Actually, the student's saw a white cloaked adult _woman_ challenge her family to a spar that got out of hand," replied Ozpin, making Umbra's jaw drop.

"Then I'll tell them the truth, and turn into Summer so they believe me," argued Umbra, causing the Headmaster to frown.

"We don't even know if you can turn back into her. And even if you could, I would have you charged with identity theft, the law is very vague on such issues," continued Ozpin, once again lying through his teeth as Umbra just slumped into his bed.

"You're a bastard…not very heroic of you Headmaster. So what do you want? You've already proved that I can't touch your precious psychopaths," growled out the boy.

Ozpin sighed sadly as he replied, "as an apology for what happened I thought we would help you figure out your Semblance. You never know when it could be helpful, plus it looks and sounds rather painful."

"You have no idea," replied Umbra as he shuddered from the memory. "Still I doubt you're doing this for purely altruistic purposes but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Very well first I have an idea of how your Semblance might work but to test it I need you to turn back into either Ms. Rose or Summer," replied the Headmaster, leaning forward in anticipation as the other two headed back to their instruments.

"Ha yeah sure, I'll just go up and ask Ruby to give me her mother's locket again shall I?" scoffed the boy, clearly showing what he thought of the idea.

"If my theory is right then you won't need it, try to turn into her right now," ordered the Headmaster.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" frowned Umbra, as he sat up from his bed.

Ozpin just shook his head as he shrugged, "we don't know. It's your Semblance, you understand it at an instinctual level that we can barely comprehend. Try remembering what it felt like the first time you transformed, it might act as a trigger."

"This is going to hurt," sighed the boy as he closed his eyes and thought back to the foreign sensation from his past two transformations.

At first nothing happened as he tried to recapture the odd feeling from before…but nothing happened as he growled in frustration. The boy was about to give up when he felt it…

The two foreign presences at the back of his mind, seemingly contained by something as he tried to reach out to them. As he grasped them two images burned themselves into his mind, they were two replicas of Ruby and Summer surrounded by wispy ghostly colours of their respective Auras. In fact, it almost reminded him of the character creation screens from the occasional RPG he played back when he was younger.

Both Ruby and Summer's forms stood perfectly still as they were slowly rotated as if waiting for him to select one of them. Each of them had weapons strapped to their backs, allowing him to clearly examine what they both looked like, although their blank expression was kind of creepy. In fact, Umbra had to stop himself as he began to examine the two different bodies and his eyes fell on their 'assets.' Shaking his head, he tried to put the perverted thoughts out of his mind as he walked over to Summer's form.

"It's the one I know best out of the two, and at least her Semblance won't Oum damn knock me out," he decided as Umbra reached out to touch Summer's wispy glowing form.

The minute his hand came into contact with her he felt the familiar and yet excruciating pain as his body was shifted and changed, the white Aura from Summer's mental image exploding outwards from her body and blinding Umbra. The pain eventually subsided and Umbra opened his eyes to see Ozpin nodding as if expecting this result while Oobleck and Goodwitch were staring at him with wide open mouths.

"Did it work?" he asked, only to have the question answered by itself as he heard the feminine voice coming from his throat as Ozpin held up a mirror, to reveal Summer's face looking back at him.

"Well Glynda, did we record the results?" asked Ozpin, turning to the blonde and causing the her to snap out of her daze.

"Yes Headmaster, the Aura is now an exact match to Summer's there is no trace of either his own or Ms. Rose's," she informed him.

"So what does that mean?" asked Umbra, trying to ignore the feeling of wearing a combat skirt.

After all, during the fight he didn't really have time to take notice but…this was a mature female body, the thought instantly made a blush appear on his face as he shook his head and focused on Ozpin. Hoping that the talking would distract him from his current predicament.

"It would seem that your Semblance allows you to copy another's Aura entirely, even down to their Semblance," replied the Headmaster.

"But then how come I _physically_ turn into them? Why not just keep the Aura and Semblance? I mean I didn't think Semblances could affect the body like that," replied Umbra with a frown as he crossed his arms over his chest, only to grow another blush as he put rested them on his lap.

"It is not unknown for a Semblance to completely change a person's body, the Doppelgänger Semblance is a good example of this. I personally know of a few that can shapeshift into animals. So it's not unheard of," lectured the Headmaster, as Oobleck and Glynda begun taking medical tests of Umbra's new body, blood tests, finger print examinations, were just some of the procedures he was forced to go under as Ozpin continued.

"As for why it changes your psychical form in the first place. Well it is the nature of Aura to return the body to a state it finds natural, that is why people with their Aura unlocked tend to slow down their aging process once they reach their peak fitness level," informed the Headmaster as Oobleck and Glynda left the room to analyse the data from the tests.

There was silence between the two as Umbra began digesting what Ozpin had said before he realised a flaw with the theory. "But if my Semblance required someone's Aura to copy them how did I manage to turn into Ruby's mum?" questioned the boy in confusion as he gestured to the current body he wore, making a frown cross Ozpin's face.

"I don't quite know, but I do have a theory if you would care to hear it," replied Ozpin, getting an eager nod from Umbra.

"It is possible that Summer had that locket for so long, experienced so much with it that fragments of her Aura were imprinted on the artifact itself. When you came into contact with it, your Semblance interacted with these fragments as it would a normal person and began absorbing it," explained the Headmaster, getting a scoff from the boy.

"That's impossible, everyone knows that you need a soul to generate Aura. It can't just latch onto something that you own," he laughed, remembering back to his old lessons at Signal.

"Perhaps, or perhaps not. Tell me, have you ever heard the saying; 'putting your heart and soul into something?' A very odd turn of phrase isn't it? Perhaps there was more to that saying then we originally realized?" replied the Ozpin with raised eyebrows.

"Headmaster Ozpin, you can't be serious," frowned Umbra, shaking his head.

"Whether or not this theory is correct is irrelevant. The fact remains that you are now able to turn into Summer Rose, a Huntress that died years ago. It would seem that even after all these years the mysteries of Aura still surprise us," sighed Ozpin, before turning back to face Umbra.

"Now let us talk about your future. I have a proposition to make," offered the Headmaster, only to stop as Umbra raised a hand.

"I'm going to stop you right there Ozpin. I know what you're going to offer me and I refuse, I'm not a Huntsman," replied Umbra as he started taking deep breathes to calm his rising anger.

"Then what are you Umbra?" asked the Headmaster with raised eyebrows.

The boy just shrugged, "I'm an actor, simple as that. Not a hero, not a fighter, I'm a civilian."

"But you don't have to be Umbra, I'm offering you a chance at something more. You can leave your civilian life behind you," pressured the Headmaster gently.

Umbra frowned as he remembered the stern yet understanding face of his boss training him and others like him to be actors and offering them jobs. "What makes you think I want to leave this life Ozpin?" he growled out, making the Headmaster blink at the boy's anger.

Umbra just ignored this as he continued, "Do you know how hard it is to find a job if you're a Signal dropout? It becomes a negative stigma that's stuck with you for life. It's why most of us resort to crime for work."

The Headmaster said nothing as he saw the complex emotions being displayed on the boy's face, realising that he had a point. After all, the majority of dangerous criminals were at some point a Signal student…maybe he should have made a support program for them?

This thought was cut short as Umbra spoke once more, "but my boss wasn't like that. He looks for Signal students specifically and offers them jobs. He wants to teach them skills that they need to survive in the real world, things that aren't taught at a combat school like Signal."

"Do we get paid much for working? No. Do we care? NO! Here we all were at the bottom of the barrel contemplating the criminal life when he comes along and picks us back up. We all owe him more than we can possible pay, and you want me to turn my back on him and be your little pet experiment!" shouted Umbra, the bed's metal bar in his hands dissolving into rose petals

Seeing things were about to get out of control Ozpin raised his hands in a calming gesture as he tried to reason with the teen, "I assure you Umbra, that is not my intention-"

"Oh really?" questioned the boy, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Then explain why you only showed interest in me after discovering my Semblance. That's all you want me for, my unique abilities, don't think I'm some naïve student you can swindle Headmaster. I'm a coward but I'm not an idiot."

Seeing the Headmaster stunned by this outburst the boy began heading for the door, "My loyalty lies with the man who has been taking care of us when we were kicked to the curb, you and all the other Hunters can go to hell for all I care."

"If you are so loyal to him, then why would you pass up the chance to ease his burden?" asked Ozpin, a knowing smile crossing his face as Umbra froze at the door before turning with a frown on the boy's face.

"What do you mean?" questioned the teenager.

"You said that you all get paid very little due to the number of you he has hired. But do you know the real reason? He's going bankrupt," announced the Headmaster, making Umbra's eyes widen.

"It's not that big of a surprise really. His theater, The Looking Glass, isn't big or popular, that coupled with the fact that he kept hiring new Signal dropouts as staff, it's a wonder his business has lasted as long as it did," informed Ozpin as he opened his scroll and showed it to the boy.

As Umbra looked at it he saw numerous messages and bank statements all addressed to his boss, all saying the same thing. The theater would go bankrupt within the next month, maybe two if they had a good season.

"I thought it was illegal to abuse your position as Headmaster of Beacon like this, those messages were private," muttered Umbra, glaring at Ozpin whom shrugged.

"That is not the issue here, now that you know…what are you going to do?" asked Ozpin, making a frown of concentration appear on Umbra's face.

'That's a good point, I don't want the theater to shut down because of us, it's the old guy's life. Maybe it's time to start looking into some more…unsavory activities with my Semblance. With Summer's and Ruby's bodies and Semblances it would be easy to steal the money needed to keep us going,' he thought, planning to go talk to his friends and fellow dropouts Miltia and Melanie about some work.

As if sensing his thoughts Ozpin raised his eyebrows and spoke up, "perhaps we could come to an understanding?"

"What did you have in mind?" he questioned in a suspicious tone, having a bad feeling about where this was going.

"Beacon would be more than willing to sponsor this theater, after all providing Signal dropouts a home and work stops them joining criminals. With our support, The Looking Glass would never have to worry about money issues ever again," replied the grey haired Headmaster as he took the scroll back from the boy.

"And in return?" asked Umbra, his eyes narrowing.

"I think you know," answered the Headmaster in a saddened voice.

"You're a manipulative bastard, you know that Ozpin? Why do you even want me? I'm not even that good of a fighter! I lost to Yang and Ruby when I had the body and Semblance of a full Huntress!" exclaimed Umbra.

"True you only have basic Signal training, but you were top of your class while you attended, your old instructor spoke very highly of you. Next while your fight with Miss Xiao Long and Miss Rose ended with your loss, it was your first time using Summer's weapons, first time having that level of speed and strength available to you, not to mention during the fight you figured out the basics of Summer's Semblance," listed the Headmaster in a lecturing tone.

"While you are nowhere near experienced enough to be at the level of a Beacon student…you are extremely adaptable and a very quick leaner. With proper training you could be an incredible force to reckon with," concluded Ozpin with a smile.

"I'm not a Huntsman, Ozpin. I don't want to risk my life of a bunch of strangers who would just stab me in the back," growled Umbra, a flash of phantom pain coming from his old wound as the memory briefly resurfaced.

"Yes, I know about your tail. I know what they did to you, rest assured they were expelled from Signal once it was found out. Your combat teacher saw to that," replied the Headmaster in a saddened tone.

"The old drunk comes through again huh? At least there's one competent teacher at Signal," scoffed the boy. "That being said my point still remains, I'm not a Huntsman."

"Indeed you're not a Huntsman, you're an actor. Tell me, Umbra, what is an actor's job? Their job is to immerse themselves in a character, to play the role given to them, _to become someone else_. Perhaps that's the reason for your Semblance?" theorised the Headmaster, causing Umbra to frown but say nothing as Ozpin continued.

"But I digress, I don't want you here as a student Umbra. And rest assured you won't be fighting Grimm. You won't even have to live on Beacon grounds. In addition to Beacon's sponsorship you will also be getting paid double whatever you make at the theater," proposed Ozpin, getting a curious expression from Umbra.

"So then what will I be doing?" he asked in disbelief, the entire thing seeming too good to be true.

Ozpin smiled, "I have been talking it over with my fellow Headmaster James Ironwood for a couple of days now. We both decided that due to the increasingly varied jobs Hunters are being forced to undertake, a new class should be taught here at the Academies."

"New class? What does that have to do with me?" replied Umbra as his frown deepened.

"Simple, I want to hire you as a Teacher's Assistant, together with Glynda and myself, you will be teaching our students how to infiltrate organisations as well as spot infiltrators. I believe your unique skills and Semblance will be invaluable in assisting with teaching the class," replied Ozpin with a smile.

"And in doing so, you get to keep an eye on me personally," pointed out Umbra with a smirk, causing Ozpin to smile approvingly.

"Indeed, yet another reason for you to assist in teaching. You have a very sharp mind. So do we have a deal?" asked Ozpin, about to hold his hand out to the boy before remembering his Semblance and retracting it.

Umbra was silent for a few seconds before he sighed, "I'll do it. Now can someone please give me a scroll so I can call my work. They're all probably worried sick after I didn't show up after the Breach."

"Of course, I look forward to working with you, Mr. Furvus," replied Ozpin as he handed over his scroll to the boy.

* * *

Elsewhere a certain drunk Huntsman was enjoying one of his few days off as he turned on his computer when he saw a certain video pop up on the recommended videos. 'Real Life Huntress Fights Beacon Students!'

"Oh this should be good," laughed Qrow, after all there was no way Ozpin would let something like that happen at his own school, especially not with the Council breathing down his neck.

"Let's see this so called Huntress," he chuckled, opening his flask again as the video started.

It was poor quality…probably filmed off a scroll as the cameraman pointed it towards the three figures fighting in the courtyard below. Qrow's eyes widened as he recognized the distinctive clothing of his nieces even through the poor video quality. 'What's going on?' he wondered as the two of them rushed towards their opponent.

As the camera swerved to follow them Qrow spat out his drink as he saw the familiar white cloaked woman holding them off with her twin chain scythes. 'That's not possible…she's dead. It must just be someone who looks like her,' he decided, only for that theory to die as he saw the white cloak woman activate her Semblance.

"Scatter," muttered Qrow as the pavement turned to white petals.

"Summer," gasped the Huntsman as he immediately downloaded the video and got out his scroll before typing a message.

 _Raven, Tai._

 _We need to talk. ALL THREE OF US! It's about Summer…she's ALIVE!_

 _Meet me at the Crowbar around three tomorrow._

 _Raven, I know you don't want to see us again. But you owe Summer, if you don't show up I will hunt you down myself. This is a matter for all of team STRQ!_

 _Qrow._

* * *

 **So that was a thing. If you didn't realised team STRQ are going to have a major role in this story. Net I need a name for Summer's weapons, let me know your suggestions in the reviews. So for the few people that read Holding All the Cards…I tried but I just couldn't get back in the right mind set. So unfortunately it's back on Hiatus. Sorry.**


	3. The Cast And Crew

**So either it wasn't important enough for people to mention or it went completely over people's heads about one major event that was hinted at in Umbra's past. Meh, anyway enjoy the new chapter.**

 **Also the results for Summer's weapons are in, the winner is Mingyu with Stem and Petal for the twin chain scythes.**

 **Question time: (Guest reviewers please make up a name so it is easier to answer questions.)**

 **revan193: Cheers mate, I appreciate the support.**

 **Guest: It's fine mate, this story isn't everyone's cup of tea.**

 **Bulldan: True, very true.**

 **Mingyu: Ha nice to see you again Mingyu. Also congrats on picking up on Umbra's backstory.**

 **Poshboy: Glad you liked it mate.**

 **Zentari2238: Sort of…you're probably not going to like this story; I wouldn't recommend reading it further. Just a heads up.**

 **Pyrothekid: Thanks for the suggestion, yeah that's what I do when I want to create a specific mood for a conversation.**

 **black shadow: Your wish is granted.**

 **Tforce: He will use other people's Semblances but he will also have a main combat one.**

 **Kamigawa Nagamaki: Currently I'm struggling to write for Holding All the Cards, but the good news is that the recent Fate/Grand Order anime recently got me back into the Fate series (Caster Cu is awesome).**

* * *

" _You should stay away from me Summer," warned the high school aged Qrow as he caught sight of her walking up to greet him._

 _Summer just grinned, "The more you say that, the more I'll stick to you like glue. We're partners after all."_

 _He just frowned as he rounded on his partner, "You know about my Semblance! You know what it does. Honestly this team would be better if I wasn't on it!"_

" _Nope," replied Summer cheerfully popping the_ p _sound._

" _Summer! I'm a Bad Luck charm…I bring only Misfortune!" shouted Qrow._

" _Nope," repeated the huntress with a happy smile on her face, causing him to frown in confusion._

" _You know you not the easiest person to talk to about things like this," he frowned, causing the white cloaked girl to chuckle._

" _Nope," she agreed before surprising Qrow as she embraced him in a tight hug. "Qrow, you're a valued member of team STRQ, and the best partner I could ever have. Regardless of your Semblance, I wouldn't pick anyone else to be my friend and partner."_

 _Qrow said nothing as his eyes widened in shock, his vision going blurry as something wet began leaking out of his eyes. The huntsman quickly wiped the tears away before Summer noticed and a bright smile grew on his face. 'Maybe…maybe just this once…it wouldn't hurt to have a friend,' he thought as the duo began walking towards their dorms._

Qrow growled in frustration as long buried memories resurfaced before ordering another drink, trying to drown out the images with alcohol. The bartender just shot him a concerned glance, but knew better than to refuse a Huntsman, especially one that was armed.

The Huntsman was silent as he sat in the corner of the bar, away from prying eyes as he sculled his fifth triple shot of whiskey within the past ten minutes. Sighing as he felt the alcoholic buzz in his head and causing the Huntsman to mentally prepare himself for the shitstorm he was about to unleash. He honestly wasn't sure if either of them would actually show up, Oum knows they both have more than enough reasons to blow him off.

He then looked at the clock sitting nearby and frowned as he saw the time, 'they're both late.' He supposed he shouldn't be that surprised, even he wouldn't have believed that Summer was alive if he hadn't seen the evidence for himself. Qrow then flinched as one particular memory began replaying itself over and over in his mind, the one memory he was so desperate to bury…

" _Qrow…it's not your fault," whispered the bloodied body of Summer Rose, her white cloak now stained a crimson red._

 _The younger Qrow just slammed his fist into the ground as tears flowed down his cheeks, "BULLSHIT! If it wasn't for my Semblance-"_

 _The Huntsman was silenced as Summer weakly raised a hand to stop him, "It's okay, don't…blame…"_

 _The Huntress was never able to finish her sentence as she grew silent and her arm fell to the ground, only for the hand to be caught by Qrow. "SUMMER?! SUMMER! WAKE UP! Please…open your eyes," begged Qrow in a soft voice, only to get silence in response._

 _The world was silent, no winds blowing, no animals calling, nothing…save for the soft sobbing echoing throughout the forest._

All the bar patrons jumped as Qrow hurled the empty glass at a wall, completely shattering it into pieces, the light and alcohol causing the glass shards to resemble white rose petals as they fell to the floor. Upon seeing this outburst, the remaining patrons all quickly sculled their last drinks before running to the exit, after all no one wanted to get on the bad side of a drunk Hunter.

"Another!" roared Qrow as he sat down, more and more unwanted memories surfacing as he gripped the table tightly.

"I'll find you Summer, even if I have to do it myself. I promise you that!" he swore, fingering his last drink as he prepared to leave the bar, giving up on waiting for his former teammates.

"Not in that state you're not," replied a female voice, causing Qrow to slowly turn to see his sister appearing behind him, her red portal closing behind her. "Hello Brother."

"Raven," greeted Qrow, his voice slurring slightly from the amount of alcohol he'd drunk beforehand.

His sister took one look at him, examining his horrible state, before taking a step back in shock, "You were serious…"

"I wouldn't lie about this, even to you Raven," growled out Qrow as he reached for his drink, only to have to snatched from his hand by his erstwhile sister.

"No more alcohol, you've clearly had more than enough, even for you. I need you to tell me everything…while you can still speak in complete sentences," replied his sister as she took a seat across from him and removed her mask to reveal the concerned face beneath it.

"When Tai shows up, it'll save me from explaining everything twice," answered Qrow, causing Raven to sigh.

"Brother…I don't think he's going to come. You know how he feels about us both, the only reason I showed up is that you would have made good on your threat," replied his sister, only for her eyes to widen as they both heard a familiar voice.

"Shows how well you know me," growled out Taiyang, walking over to them with a frown as he examined Qrow's condition.

"Taiyang," greeted Raven stiffly with a nod.

"Raven," he replied, equally as stiff as he returned the nod before turning back to Qrow with a snarl on his face. "Qrow I swear to Oum, if this is some sort of trick…not even Ozpin will save you from my wrath."

"Taiyang, look at him. We both know he wouldn't be in this state if he wasn't telling the truth," whispered Raven harshly, getting an ambiguous grunt from the blonde.

There was an awkward silence before Raven eventually broke it with a sigh, "I can't remember the last time the three of us were in the same room together."

"It was at Summer's funeral," answered Taiyang, his voice devoid of emotion as he continued staring at Qrow, whom flinched at the mention of it.

"What's going on Qrow, your message said that Summer was alive. Unless you have some proof of that, I'm walking out the door right now," promised Tai, glaring at the Huntsman in question.

Qrow drunkenly stumbled as he tried to get his scroll out of his pocket, causing Raven to sigh as she got up and grabbed it from him. "Bring up the most recently downloaded video," ordered Qrow, realising his current coordination wasn't suited for using a scroll.

Both Raven and Taiyang frowned as they did as ordered and the two watched the blurry video begin to play, both their faces gaining shocked expressions as they saw the white cloaked figure holding off what was clearly Ruby and Yang. At first they thought nothing of it, like Qrow they reasoned it away, that was until they saw the white woman's Semblance.

The scroll fell from numb hands as they both remained stock still, Taiyang was the first to recover as he ever so slowly turned back to Qrow. "Qrow, this is your only chance to tell me. Did you fabricate this footage?" he asked in a soft tone.

The scythe wielder shook his head, "No and not only that, but when I tried to find the video online again…it had been taken down. It's real Tai, she's alive."

"And someone is covering it up," concluded Raven, getting a nod from her brother.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," he agreed, causing Taiyang to frown.

"But who? And why?" he questioned furiously.

"The bigger question is why didn't Ruby and Yang tell us? You think they'd be overjoyed that Summer was alive. We should have got messages from them immediately afterwards," pointed out Qrow.

"Unless they were told not to…by someone powerful and that they trust…someone like Ozpin," growled out Taiyang, received shocked looks from his two former teammates.

"Tai what you're suggesting…" trailed off Qrow.

"I personally don't regard Ozpin very highly, but even I think this is below him," argued Raven in agreement with her brother.

"It happened at Beacon academy. There is no way Ozpin didn't know this was going on and yet he didn't even tell Qrow who has been working for him for years! He could have easily convinced Ruby and Yang to keep quiet about this or he might even be blocking their messages to us," shot back Taiyang.

"I suppose you have a point…but in all the time I've worked for old Oz…he never seemed the type to do something like that," frowned Qrow.

"That's not the only possibility, we also need to take Summer herself into account," informed Raven.

"That's true, why wouldn't she tell us anything! Why would she let us think she's dead for so long!" questioned Taiyang, feeling a mixture of emotions flowing through his body.

"Don't worry Tai, we'll find her…together as a team, even if we have to search Vale from top to bottom," replied Qrow, getting a nod from Taiyang while Raven just frowned.

"I'll let Signal know that I'm taking my vacation early, that should give us plenty of time to look for her…you should do the same," informed the blonde as Qrow nodded in agreement.

"Old Oz might be a bit put out that I've decided to take this moment to go AWOL, but if he really is responsible for this... At least with the losses the White Fang suffered, it'll be a while before the Queen will make her move," mused the Huntsman.

"Have either of you considered that maybe Summer doesn't want to be found? That perhaps it is Summer herself that is covering it up?" asked Raven, causing both males to freeze. "Think about it, perhaps she was done fighting, perhaps she just wanted to get away from everything, Grimm, Ozpin…us…" muttered the tribe leader softly.

Tai just shook his head and growled, "No, Summer's not like a certain teammate I know. She would never abandon Ruby like that."

Raven didn't rise to the bait and instead just turned to Qrow, "A near death experience can change a person…she might not be the same Summer we all know."

"It doesn't matter, she owes us some answers, we were her teammates for Oum's sake!" replied Qrow, getting a nod of agreement from Taiyang.

Raven saw the two looks of determination on their faces and sighed, "Very well, the tribe can survive without me for a couple of weeks. I'll begin searching our old hideouts."

"Tai and I will start asking around town, see if anyone has spotted Summer," replied Qrow, Taiyang giving his agreement in the form of another grunt.

And so team STRQ was united for their first mission in over a decade…they would find Summer Rose and bring her back, and woe to anyone who got in their way.

* * *

Umbra shuddered as a horrible feeling of foreboding erupted around him as he walked into the cafeteria, 'must just be nerves.' With that thought he then sighed as the boy silently pondered how to explain what had happened to his boss.

"The old man took it pretty well when he heard I was working part time at Beacon, he'd be heartbroken if he found out just why I'm working here," he muttered, trying to think up a believable lie. "Meh I'll have to think up one when I see everyone at the theatre after class."

Shrugging Umbra walked towards Beacon's cafeteria, a smile appearing on his face as he began to think on the irony of his current situation. 'I always wanted to go to Beacon but after the…incident, well this place really isn't that different from Signal I guess. If I find one of those racist bastards they're dead men walking,' he thought, phantom pain once again erupting from where his tail once was.

Shaking the memory from his head the boy walked into the school cafeteria and stopped in shock at the size of it and the amount of people present. "Okay…so maybe it is a little different from Signal," he said in awe, that quickly devolved to horror as he saw a specific team eating in the corner.

"Just ignore them Umbra, maybe they won't see you," he muttered quietly to himself, only to flinch as he heard Ruby's voice echo across the cafeteria.

"Umbra? Is that you? Hey, we have a free seat! Come over here, Yang and I wanted to talk!" she called, getting up from her chair as the rest of her team and the neighboring team turned to stare at him.

"Nope, not dealing with the psychopaths, let's find another seat," decided Umbra as he searched for somewhere else to sit.

Unfortunately, when you cram the students from four schools into one, there are going to be seating issues, as proven by the fact that there was literally nowhere else to sit. "How hungry am I? Do I want to risk sitting near those maniacs," he wondered, only to grimace as he heard his stomach growl loudly in protest.

"Guess that's the answer to that question," he sighed before walking over to the food and grabbing his meal.

Against his better judgement the teen then walked over to the only empty seat left in the cafeteria, trying to ignore the eyes of the two teams staring at him as he ate. "So…Umbra, my sister and I just wanted to apologise for what happened earlier," apologized Yang, trying to break the awkward silence that had descended on them.

"You mean how you beat me up so badly I was left coughing up blood on the ground," he growled, causing all of team JNPR to stare at Yang and Ruby in shock.

"Yes…that," replied Yang through gritted, trying to contain her rising temperature.

"Suuuuuure, I'll let it all go," he said with a voice that was dripping with sarcasm.

"Really," smiled the naïve Ruby, causing a frown to grow on Umbra's face.

"No," he deadpanned before returning to his meal.

"Was this what I was like when we first met," muttered Weiss, noticing a disturbing similarity with her team leader's interactions.

"No," replied Blake as she continued reading her book. "He's much more tolerable."

"So why are you still at Beacon? Didn't you have a job to get back to?" asked Ruby, trying to try make a better impression on the boy after their last meeting.

"After you lot beat me to a pulp, Ozpin decided to hire me to work for Beacon," he growled out, making Ruby's hopes sink like a stone.

"Doing what? You must have some skill if the Headmaster himself wanted you here," questioned Weiss with a curious expression on her face.

"You'll find out soon. Your next class is the new one they've started up isn't it?" he asked, making everyone nod.

"Yeah why?" replied Yang with a confused frown, making a soft chuckle escape from the boy.

"You'll see," muttered Umbra, making all of the students shudder as his eyes suddenly gained an excited look and a vengeful smile crossed his face.

"Well I suppose we should introduce ourselves," stated the red head girl, getting nods from the rest of her teammates as the blonde boy walked forward and stuck out his hand, only to lower it as Umbra refused to shake it.

"I'm Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it," introduced the Knight, not seeing Pyrrha once again give him a happy smile as she stared at him.

"I can see that," smirked Umbra as he turned his gaze to Pyrrha, making the red head blush in embarrassment at being caught.

"This is my partner Pyrrha and our two teammates Ren and Nora," introduced Jaune, oblivious to the blushing partner behind him.

"Please to meet you, tell me what do you think about Sloths?" asked Nora as she jumped over to him and went to grab his shoulder.

"Stop! Don't touch me!" yelled Umbra as he dived away from Nora's embrace, only just managing to avoid the ginger touching him.

"Don't be shy! You'll never make friends if you act like that! Come on, let's be friends," cheered Nora with a challenging grin on her face as she tried again and this time trapped Umbra in a bear hug.

"Nora! STOP!" cried Ruby as her team rushed to stop the orange haired girl.

 _AURA ANALYSED…BEGINNING CONVERSION…_

"I hate all of you," growled out the boy in a tired voice, before howling in horrific pain, causing Nora to drop him and back away from Umbra's writhing body.

Team RWBY just looked away and blocked their ears as the transformation continued, while team JNPR watched the process with morbid fascination as Umbra's body quickly changed to resemble a certain teammate they knew. Once the process was done everyone was silent as they watched the copy of Nora groan as she got up from the ground, making them all feel uncomfortable at how…docile it looked compared to the Nora they all knew.

"Why do I have a sudden craving for Pancakes and Maple syrup?" Umbra asked in a feminine voice.

Upon hearing his new voice Umbra sighed deeply before looking down at his new body and his eyebrow twitched as he saw the pink shirt and white shirt he was now wearing. One thing he did note was that despite Nora being in her Beacon uniform he had transformed into her body with what he could only assume was her normal combat gear, a massive hammer stowed on his back. 'Yet another mystery about my Semblance I suppose,' he thought, before being snapping out of his revere as Nora's voice echoed across the cafeteria.

"It's another me…this is just like that movie where the aliens abduct and clone people. Well it's not going to work on me!" shouted the hammer wielder of team JNPR, jumping back from Umbra before getting into a combat stance.

"Huh?" muttered Umbra in confusion as he turned to see Nora ripping a metal pole out from the wall before attaching a watermelon to one end of it.

"TAKE THIS ALIEN SCUM!" shouted Nora, swinging her makeshift weapon at him.

Eyes widening Umbra quickly brought his hands up and grabbed Nora's makeshift hammer by the pole, neither team moving as the two identical people entered a stalemate as they tried to wrest the weapon away from each other. Unfortunately, Nora was easily able to toss aside her copy, due to her experience with wielding hammers, causing Umbra to go flying into the wall. No one said a word as they watched Umbra groan as he fell to the ground and began picking himself up.

"Woah, hold on. I'm not an alien! What the fuck is wrong with you people!? You're all insane!" he yelled upon seeing Nora rushing towards him with her 'weapon' held high.

"Um…should we stop this?" questioned Jaune, watching as Nora chased Umbra out of the cafeteria.

"You want to get between Nora and her fantasies?" replied Ren as he calmly began drinking his tea.

"Good point," agreed the Knight.

"More importantly, Ruby who was that and how was he able to turn into Nora?" questioned the quiet boy with a frown, remembering the feeling of Nora's aura in to places at once.

"It's a long story," sighed the Reaper, flinching as they all heard explosions coming from the direction Nora and Umbra had been heading.

* * *

There was loud murmuring around the classroom as the students each began talking to each other, trying to find out just what this new class was that all firsts years were being required to attend. After all, it was already partway through the semester, not exactly a normal time for the teachers to add a new course to their studies.

"All of you quiet down!" ordered Glynda as she walked with Headmaster Ozpin, instantly silencing the class as they saw the Headmaster himself present.

"Just what kind of class is this? For the Headmaster himself to oversee it?" questioned Weiss, getting shrugs from the rest of team RWBY and JNPR.

"I'd like to welcome everyone to the first class of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence," welcomed Ozpin as he took centre stage.

There were a few murmurs of confusion coming from the students at this announcement, clearly this wasn't at all expected to be needed for students to learn when they came here. "Some of you may be confused as to why we are teaching this," continued Ozpin as he looked around the room, causing the whispers to stop as everyone turned to face him.

"In recent years it has come to our attention that Huntsman and Huntresses are no longer being deployed against Grimm as much as they used to be. In fact, may take on a variety of jobs that require dealing with the criminal elements of the Underworld," informed the Headmaster, getting a nod from Blake.

"Due to this, Hunters may be required to infiltrate organisations or in turn need to spot infiltrators. Too often criminals escape due to masquerading as uninvolved innocents or are able to attack otherwise impenetrable compounds due to simple infiltrators," explained Ozpin, his memory briefly flashing back to the CCT incident with a frown.

'Too often indeed,' he thought with a sigh before returning his attention back to the present.

"And so the three of us shall be teaching you the basics of Counter-Intelligence with the assistance of General Ironwood," concluded the Headmaster, causing confused expressions to appear on the faces of the students present.

"Headmaster? Did you say three?" questioned Weiss as she raised her hand.

"Yes Miss Schnee, I did," smiled Ozpin. "Beacon recently hired an expert to act as a Teacher's Assistant for this class."

"Then where are they?" replied the heiress with a frown as the class looked around the room to find the missing TA.

The smile on Ozpin's face widened slightly as he replied, "That is your job to find out Miss Schnee, before class started we asked a volunteer to help us with a little demonstration. One person in this room is an imposter. The first test is for you students to determine who it is."

"What are you talking about? Everyone's here," argued Cardin as the Headmaster stepped back and the students did a quick head count.

"Many enemies will have Semblances that can be used to disguise themselves; Illusionist and Doppelganger are just to name a few. You need to be able to determine whether what your seeing is true or not," lectured Goodwitch as she stepped forward.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" grumbled the leader of team CRDL.

"That is what you need to find out Mr. Winchester. Each of you have been with your teammates for over a semester, it is time to test how well you all know each other. A good team should easily be able to spot an imposter," replied the Combat instructor. "You all have the remainder of the class to try and find the imposter, good luck."

All the teams shared a glance with each other before they quickly began examining their fellow teammates with critical eyes, silently pondering who the imposter could be. "Are they being serious?" muttered Yang in shock.

"They're not wrong Yang, Huntresses need these kind of skills to survive in the real world," replied Blake, putting her book down as the Faunus began examining the rest of her team.

"Um…Blake…what are you doing?" asked Ruby fidgeting under the Faunus' gaze.

Blake was silent for a couple of seconds before a small smile appeared on her face, "Just checking you're still the awkward team leader I remember."

The rest of team RWBY just breathed sighs of relief at Blake's words as they turned to the Faunus to see her nod at the rest of her team. "I suppose you would have more experience with these kind of things Blake…considering your past…employment," frowned Weiss, mindful of the other teams within hearing range.

For her part the Faunus just blinked silently before nodding her head, "Yes…my previous 'employers' needed me to have some skills in this kind of thing."

"So who do you think is the imposter?" asked Yang, causing RWBY and JNPR to turn and face the Faunus.

Blake was silent before sighing as she turned to examine the rest of the students, "First we need to figure out who we're trying to find. Who's he one person we know that has a Semblance capable of this and has already mentioned that he is now working at Beacon?"

"You think Umbra is the imposter?" questioned Ruby, getting a nod from Blake.

"It makes some sense," agreed Weiss in a reluctant tone.

"Okay so we're looking for the coward. This should be easy, we just have to scare him out," grinned Yang as she and Nora began cracking their knuckles.

"Easier said than done, we could end up making things worse if we're not careful. I think we should avoid using that option if we have a choice," argued Weiss, glaring at the two powerhouses.

"She's right Yang, if we accuse the wrong person the class will descend into chaos," agreed Blake, causing all of them to turn back to the Faunus with a frown.

"Alright than Blake, what should we do? You have the most experience with this after all," asked Ruby, getting nods of agreements from team RWBY and JNPR.

"Well first we can rule out any Faunus students. They have enhanced senses that would make a normal human disorientated, and Umbra didn't feel like a Faunus," replied Blake, frowning as she returned to examining the remaining students.

"He would also try to avoid using a female form, we all saw how uncomfortable he was when he turned into Nora in the cafeteria," commented Weiss, offering her own opinion and causing her friends to nod in agreement.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that Weiss; he could have picked a female one to throw us off. It's a common strategy to reveal a 'weakness' to possible targets before exploiting it as a strength," replied Blake as her frown deepened.

There was silence as the two teams pondered what Blake had said before they sighed, brought back to square one. At least they ruled out any Faunus students, sadly there weren't many in this class to begin with.

"Having trouble?" questioned a familiar male voice, making them all spin around to see Ozpin standing in front of them with is mug covering his face.

"A little bit, it's just so hard to find Umbra," sighed Ruby, getting a soft chuckle from the Headmaster.

"So you already worked out that it is Umbra? Well that's half the battle. Think Miss Rose, you and team RWBY and JNPR have both met Umbra before. What characteristics of his stood out to you all?" questioned the Headmaster.

"He was left handed," replied Weiss with an understanding expression on her face, everyone completely missing the shocked look briefly appear on Blake's face.

"Very perceptive, Miss Schnee," congratulated Ozpin as he walked away.

"He has got to be feeling nervous with everyone trying to find him. Look for subtle signs, a nervous tick, or a flutter of anxiety," ordered Blake, getting nod from Weiss.

"Right now, I think everyone is feeling a bit anxious right now Blake," argued the Schnee heiress.

"He will take measure to make sure he doesn't give himself away, like a gambler concealing a tell," replied the Faunus. "We should look for that."

"Guys, why has Cardin got his left hand in his pocket?" interrupted Ruby in a soft voice, everyone freezing as they slowly turned to face the leader of team CRDL.

"He does look a little anxious," agreed Pyrrha, frowning as she examined him. "Plus his team isn't the closest, it would be easy to infiltrate them."

"I think it might be him," muttered the Reaper.

"You think? Ruby we only have one chance; you have to be sure," warned Blake as she cast a worrying glance towards the distracted Weiss.

The leader of team RWBY's eyes widened as she saw this before feeling Blake hand a note over to her as the Faunus returned to debating with the others. Ruby just quickly opened the note and read it with wide eyes before quickly folding it up and shoving it into her pocket.

 _It's not Cardin…Weiss is acting odd…_

'Weiss is acting odd? But she's been one of the most helpful in finding Umbra, why would Blake suspect her?' she wondered with a frown.

 _It's a common strategy to reveal a 'weakness' to possible targets before exploiting it as a strength…_

"Your cloaking is ticking everyone, need I remind you that in the real world you won't have the luxury of time and a single miscalculation could cost you your life," announced Goodwitch, snapping Ruby back to the present as Blake's warning echoed across her head.

"This isn't working! He's too good damn it!" raged Yang as Ruby slowly walked left the two teams and walked over to Headmaster Ozpin with a determined expression on her face.

"Headmaster?" she asked, getting his attention.

"What is it Miss Rose?" he replied in a helpful tone.

Ruby was silent as she tried to work out what to say next, "Do you remember how you said my team knew Umbra best…wouldn't that mean that the person he could imitate the best would be one of us?"

The Headmaster just gained a proud smile as he put down his mug and nodded, "Indeed it would Miss Rose, now the question becomes how well do you know your teammates? Who do you think is the imposter?"

"I…I don't know. What if I'm wrong? It could just be Weiss having an off day or being focused on the task. I mean she isn't even acting nervous; how can she be the imposter?" questioned Ruby, a fearful expression on her face.

"Not all actors get nervous; some completely immerse themselves into their characters, so in this case, perhaps it's the opposite? A failure to behave naturally. An actor so consumed with his performance that the one characteristic he cannot accommodate…is spontaneous reaction," explained Ozpin, with an encouraging smile.

"What does that mean?" replied Ruby, her brows furrowed in confusion.

"That is up to you to find out, best hurry though, time is nearly up," answered the Headmaster as he pointed towards the clock showing only five minutes left until the end of class.

Upon seeing this Ruby panicked as she rushed back to her team and watched Weiss with a conflicted expression on her face. Turning to Blake she silently mouthed, 'are you sure?' The Faunus slowly nodded before turning back to Pyrrha and Weiss, all three arguing if Cardin was the imposter. Even so Ruby hesitated, after all if they were wrong then Weiss' feelings and trust in them would be shaken. It could even have terrible consequences for the team.

"Sorry Weiss," muttered Ruby as she slowly raised her hand to get Goodwitch's attention, only for the bell to ring before she could expose the imposter.

"And that's time up, I must say I'm both disappointed and pleased with you all. You might not have been able to find the imposter but none of you turned your backs on your teammates and began accusing them. It is good to see this kind of trust between friends, just don't let it blind you to the facts," lectured the Combat Instructor in an oddly pleased tone.

"Indeed, now may the imposter please come forward?" requested Ozpin, causing the room to go silent as everyone began glancing around the room.

At first there was no reaction, before all of team RWBY and JNPR blinked and had their jaws drop as Blake stood up and walked up to Goodwitch, an uncharacteristic smug smirk on her face as she waved at the class.

"You're kidding me, that's just Blake," replied Cardin in confusion.

"Are you sure about that ~nyah~" smirked Blake before sticking her tongue out at the class, holding her hands up to her head and causing them to look like cat ears as she opened and closed them.

The entire class was silent at this display, blushes coming to the faces of most of the males at seeing the usually reserved and quiet member of team RWBY suddenly acting in such a childish way. "Can the real Blake please come in," ordered Goodwitch as the class door opened and the real Blake walked into the classroom.

"Hey Kitty Kat. Looks like you owe me 50 lien, your team didn't suspect a thing," laughed the fake as she walked up to her counterpart before whispering into her ear. "I just heard some interesting things about you, I wonder who your 'previous employers' were."

Blake just glared at her copy before storming over to her teammates and sitting down without a word, pointedly ignoring the apologetic looks that were being shot her way by the rest of team RWBY and JNPR. Meanwhile Ruby was in horror at how easily she'd been manipulated into nearly accusing Weiss as the imposter thanks to Umbra.

"And that's the lesson, please be here tomorrow at the same time for the next session. Team RWBY and JNPR, please stay behind," said Ozpin, dismissing the class.

Umbra was about to follow the students out, still in Blake's form, when the Headmaster stopped him, "You as well Umbra."

"Joy," deadpanned the TA, sounding so much like Blake in that moment that even the real Blake had to do a double take.

* * *

Emerald and Mercury weren't happy, why were they not happy? Because they had just come from the new 'Counter-Intelligence' class…and had failed miserably. When they had first heard the test they had thought it was a waste of time, after all, they were experienced, they knew what to look for.

They were wrong…

For the entire hour neither of them had been able to pick the imposter, sure they didn't know the fellow 'students' very well, but they should have been able to pick out the imposter from the body language alone. But they hadn't and that immediately caused them to be worried, if this 'expert' was this skilled at blending in…was he as good at spotting them?

Then there was his Semblance…

They both knew how potent a disguise based Semblance was when in the hands of a skilled user, Emerald and Neo being chief examples of this, but this Semblance wasn't like there's. Most illusion Semblances mask the aura of the wielder or fool the person's brain into think it was different; it was why aura scanners were the most common form of security. No matter how skilled the Semblance user, they couldn't fool the machine. This was the Golden Rule for thieves, criminals and terrorists. But this Semblance was something different, it recreated its target's aura, it broke the Golden Rule.

It was the ultimate tool for a thief or spy…

Meaning this person was obviously skilled at what he did…

And this person was now under Ozpin's employ…

Cinder would not be pleased about this, they might need to delay their plans, if only until they could figure out who they were dealing with…

* * *

 **Well there we go. Did you guys enjoy it?**

 **Also out of curiousity, when did everyone work out that Blake was the imposter?**

 **1 From the start? (How?)**

 **2 When 'Blake' reacted to questions about her past?**

 **3 When 'Blake' said he wasn't a Faunus?**

 **4 When 'Blake' reacted to Weiss' observation?**

 **5 When 'Blake' started suspecting Weiss?**

 **6 Not until the end.**

 **Anyway hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, the next will show Umbra's boss and the theatre. There will be a couple of OCs because of this. Feel free to suggest your own since my brain is out of ideas to make for OCs. Good luck.**


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